Director of Travel

Director of Travel

Location: Zurich/Switzerland

A career with EF combines the support and opportunity of a large international organization with the spirit and energy of a small business. We look for thinkers and doers - creative, collaborative, and motivated people who are excited by education and travel.

EF Education First, the world leader in international education, is looking for a passionate, organized, and hardworking Director to join EF’s Educational Tours Travel Team. In this role, you will be a member of an energetic, multinational team and report to the Director of Travel in EF Educational Tours’ flights division.

Start date for this full-time position is July 2025.

What you’ll be doing
- Training staff and managers on the technical aspects of industry Global Distribution Systems therefore expert level technical skills in both Sabre and Amadeus are required in addition to having at least 1 year of experience working with Travel Fusion and in NDC.
- Working closely and collaboratively with stakeholders at all levels of the business
- Managing a multi-million dollar budget consisting of both direct and indirect costs
- Setting the procurement strategy for a team responsible for procuring flights for the Educational Tours’ product group with a focus on quality, customer experience, and financial stewardship
- Providing support, training, and development for the Managers and Flight Coordinators that report to you
- Analyzing complex data and market forecasting to inform decision making for your team and the broader organization
- Collaborating with the senior sales leadership of Educational Tours to outline service level agreements, determine business rules, and set up processes that work towards providing an ideal customer experience for our North American Customers while ensuring strong budget adherence
- Working closely with the other Directors across Travel to ensure that we achieve our collective strategic priorities
- Helping to drive innovation through technology as we seek new ways to scale our business and improve our ways of working
- Expert level technical skills in the Sabre and Amadeus Global Distribution systems is required

Who you are
- Bringing 5+ years of proven success leading teams or positively influencing teams in a Manager level or above capacity
- A GDS wizard who enjoys getting into the details and discovering new work arounds and innovative ways to book groups.
- Experience working with North American travel consumers - prior experience working in the educational travel industry or in a role working with the K-12 school market a plus
- Highly collaborative and excited to work with a team to achieve high results
- Well-versed in working with senior level stakeholders, comfortable making decisions, and communicating clearly between relevant parties
- Able to raise concerns, challenge colleagues, and propose solutions in constructive and tactful ways
- Proficient in your understanding of the group travel model and the required airline procurement and servicing processes with at least 3+ years of booking groups
- Have a proven track record of managing or acting as a decision maker on technical projects that have streamlined processes
- A strategic leader who will bring drive, passion, and inspiration to the role
- Competitive and goal driven as an individual and embody a “nothing is impossible attitude” when it comes to helping your team achieve its goals
- Flexible and understand that the Travel industry is unpredictable, and you are prepared to ride the highs and lows
- A team player who comes to work every day with a work hard and have fun attitude

About EF
At EF we believe that the world is better when people try to understand one another. Since 1965, we have helped millions of people see new places, experience new cultures, and learn new things about the world and about themselves. Our culturally immersive education programs—focused on language, travel, cultural exchange, and academics—turn dreams into international opportunities.

When you join EF, you join a multicultural and diverse community working across more than 600 schools and offices in 50 countries, all with one shared mission of opening the world through education. Whoever you are, whatever you are passionate about—we welcome you and want you to bring that to work every day. EF is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to inclusion and belonging across race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, caste, parental status, identity, experience and everything else that makes you unique.